The present disclosure relates to a driving device. More specifically, the present disclosure relates to a driving device employing a metal belt drive reducing method, and an image forming apparatus including the driving device.
Conventionally, an image forming apparatus uses a driving device to transmit power from a motor to a component such as photoconductive drum, thereby rotationally driving the component. An example of the photoconductive drum is an amorphous silicon photoconductive drum employing a drum rubbing system. For driving such photoconductive drum, there is required a driving device that is resistant to variation in rubbing load and excellent in rotational accuracy, in order to prevent jitter from occurring in an output image and to form an accurate color resist pattern.
However, widely used conventional gear mechanisms including resin gears are likely to cause banding and jitter in an output image due to a rigidity decrease, meshing vibration, or the like. In contrast, there is also known a driving device including a fraction drive which has a higher rigidity than the gear mechanism and which is free from biting. However, a driving device of this type requires a high cost, and is therefore unsuitable for developing a product having high cost competitiveness. Accordingly, as a driving device using no gears, a metal belt drive reducing method is considered to be used. The metal belt drive reducing method includes a metal driven belt wound around rotational members arranged on separate two axes.